Since the conference ended, we have received dozens of letters, phone calls, and emails from students and educators reacting to their three-day experience.

Brief excerpts from some of these notes are shown below. Click on the name at the end of any excerpt to jump to a longer version of that quote.

I came in shy and wary of others, and left feeling firmly rooted in love and respect for all the people present. I've been inspired to learn more about being a student chaplain on campus! Woohoo!!
- Kela, Mt. Holyoke College

The conference mirrored the experience of uncertainty to a degree at which even the great mystical poet Rumi would have been pleased...one moment in particular burns through me, because it goes beyond Inward Bound to a place that knows few words. Still, I will try to convey it.
- Sarah, University of Florida

It seems that most people in everyday society spend most of their time in defensive modes of operation keeping others at a distance and inward bound was an open and safe place for people to open up not only to others but also to themselves.
- Lauren, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Inward Bound was a mind opening and mind blowing experience for me. Our group shared really quite intimate details and experiences—completely uninhibited...open...peaceful...passionate...contemplative. There was respect and appreciation of varying perspectives and a richness in trying to see the beauty in someone else's spiritual journey.
- Michelle, Michigan State University

Spirituality was an intimacy and closeness we felt to other people while revealing our deepest fears and desires.
- Ewa, Antioch College

Everything is so beautifully confusing, so overwhelmingly huge, and yet so delicate. I can create my own luck. I've got to really live this time. What's the next best step? How do I honor what I have seen? How do I keep growing?
- Cam, University of Florida

I feel like my priorities have shifted considerably in a deliberate direction, a direction that I personally want to head.
- Lee, North Carolina State University

Little did I know this conference was going to be life changing, ground shaking, mind quaking and a little bit, okay a lot bit, personal. We need to act on our awareness that this is our life and it is ending one minute at a time.
- Kristen, Ithaca College

The best thing that I got out of the conference was that I gained a new level of articulation: of being able to express what I believe, think, and feel in a much better way than ever before.
- John, Gonzaga University

I really think that Inward Bound has helped me to be more committed to myself, it gave me the belief that I can do something to make myself feel better, and that I am worth it.
- Sarah, North Carolina State University

No one pretended to care about the weather. I reveled in the freedom of being able to sit down next to someone I'd never met and say "Hi, I'm Jessica. Tell me about god."
- Jessica, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Overall this intense reflection allowed me to listen to myself. Instead of telling myself who I want to become, I began listening to myself. And what I heard overjoyed me...
- Jon, Gustavus Adolphus College

I recited to [my affinity group] a poem I've recently written about my spiritual life and about how scared I am of losing it. Instead of the blank stares or cold curiosity that I suppose I expected to see when I'd finished, the eyes of my fellow Warrior Poets revealed sympathy and understanding.
- Erika, Duke University

It became obvious to me that in order for another human being to truly understand me I had to speak from personal experience. I realized that an experience can't be transmitted to others by intellectual abstraction.
- Mike, North Carolina State University

3 days of spiritual conversation from the moment I awoke until the moment I went to sleep. So much love in the air. So much constant appreciation for how incredible life is and how lucky we all are. So much acceptance of others' opinions that contradict one's own beliefs. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making it part of me.
- Emily, University of Florida

I will never forget talking to Noah, my group leader, and having everything change in one intense moment; suddenly I knew it was going to be okay. I don't know how it happened, and it didn't make me understand everything, but somehow I accepted the questions without the fear.
- Laura, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Inward Bound had a profound effect on the way I conduct my life. I am no longer able to look at the world in the same way that I did before. Those around me have noticed the change, I think. I no longer look at things as just events, but as beautiful parts of a whole picture that God is painting with my life.
- Larry, Ithaca College

Going inward is not the easiest thing, especially when your outward self is doing so much. But keeping it in mind even in the busiest times is doable, and if I've realized anything, it's that.
- Karen, Princeton University

Inward Bound opened my heart and mind to the value of engaging students in serious transformative reflection, and ably demonstrated the profound impact of such work.
- Jonathan Reams, Professor, Gonzaga University

This conference has been life-changing. I feel it will play a major role in the evolution of human consciousness.
- Alex, North Carolina State University

I had an amazing experience with all of you...and I am thankful for the butterfly flapping its wings and not allowing my parents to afford sending me home over fall break, thereby pushing me to go on the inward bound retreat.
- Jacob, Guilford College

A lot of us poured our hearts out and were totally our (true) selves...and the conference created (in my own experience) a safe place to do so, which is why it was miraculously seen over and over again in the various small groups. But what about in my everyday life? Wouldn't it be worth it, to put myself out on the line, and take all the risks that the Inward Bound conference itself took, if there were only the chance that I may create that spark (that moment of beauty, truth), or be inspired, or inspire someone else?
- Courtney, North Carolina State University

All of us have grown tremendously from the experiential opportunity you help provide for us. I want to thank you profoundly for all the amazing energy you have put into making this growth possible....I really liked what Claudia and Jim did with the faculty track. The interviews were especially wonderful. They set a different tone with the degree of intimacy that one could get to.
- Patrice Brodeur, Educator, Connecticut College

I happen to come from a very conservative Nazarene church...When I first introduced myself, I said, "Hi, I'm Bonnie, and I'm very closed-minded and quite happy with where I am in my faith and I don't intend to change."
- Bonnie, Michigan State University

I want to thank you all for the splendid and exciting experience ("meeting" or "conference" just doesn't quite get to the heart of it) we shared last week. I know that I got a lot out of it, and so did the two Ithaca College students whose heads and hearts are still buzzing from it all.
- John Hochheimer, Ithaca College

Will this new lifestyle provide answers to life's deepest secrets? Who knows. But what a wonderful and rewarding way to go about that ever present search.
- Gabriel, University for Human Goodness

Inward Bound was an occasion for me to ask myself some hard questions. I saw that every moment is a chance to let myself down, or to refuse to let myself down—and I saw that there's a huge community of seekers on the path with me.
- Scott, North Carolina State University

Inward Bound...made me realize if nothing else, that community is a pivotal element in a meaningful life.
- Andrew, Antioch College

The connections I developed...showed me what my life could be: full of meaningful, profound relationships that give me real substance rather than just a shallow experience of life.
- Chris, North Carolina State University

Spirituality is in fact here, every second, every day, and Inward Bound helped me to realize and recognize that. Another important realization was this: I am not alone in my struggle for truth.
- Audrey, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

It was done with integrity, with feeling, with compassion, with all of those things that make for a secure and sound spiritual setting—for a student to engage in self discovery in a protected beautiful fashion.
- Buz Bogage, Rabbi, Depaw University

Was inspired by the level of commitment and the cohesiveness amongst the entire SKS group.
- Margaret Pusser, University for Human Goodness

It has been my experience that people who are seeking something often feel a sense of isolation. Inward Bound is a beautiful thing, if for no other reason, that it provides seekers with a much needed sense of community.
- Kellie, Middlesex Community College

I realized the biggest risk in my life is that I will realize that 5, 10, however many years down the road that I have wasted my life by not staying on a path of spirituality.
- Nic, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Spirituality remains mysterious and distant to the majority of the population as long as it resides in the monasteries, Far East, yoga etc. If we are able to bring it to public universities, imagine how people's attitude will change. In my opinion, SKS provided another angle from which the spread of consciousness on a collective scale continues to grow stronger.
- Olli, University of Florida

This conference has been a beautiful thing...It has given me a chance to think about how I am going to make my life count. I do not want to die knowing that I never really loved and I never really lived.
- Shelley Rogers, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Since I left on that Tuesday morning, my perception has changed dramatically, it is hard to explain how, it really wasn't that spiritual, but more like peeling back the layers of myself and standing naked in a mirror with all of my flaws and perfections and loving each of them because they are ME...
- Katia, Goucher College

I felt free to explore and dialogue with individuals from many different faiths (and non-faiths), yet secure, even encouraged to discuss my own tradition in an unencumbered way.
- Niles Goldstein, Rabbi, the New Shul

You come into something like Inward Bound with so many questions. I can't say any of them were really answered for me, but I realized that they really are not meant to be. Instead, those questions continue to grow, as you do. They lead you forward, and that's the important thing.
- Emily, Gustavus Adolphus College

You did a great job. Thank you. I met wonderful people!
- Caroline Garrett, Lees-McRae College

While vulnerability can be a very scary thing, there seems to be some kind of "greater presence," that is only available when people come together, and that is both humbling and inspiring.
- Brad, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

I've been involved in retreats, workshops, "reverse mission" trips, etc. The one thing that the organizers of those experiences have nearly always done wrong (in my opinion) is that they fail to curb their enthusiasm for their event, which has the potential to alienate and exclude those participants who are not experiencing a deep sense of profundity in the event. The opening media presentation, besides seeming like a frustrating attempt to use technology for technology's sake, said (basically) that this experience was going to be life-changing, eye-opening, blah...
- Sam, Warren Wilson College

I recognized that only my excuses were keeping me from doing what would truly make me happy—such as seeing the world and studying art. Since Inward Bound I have made a conscious effort to look at how I spend every day, and make sure I am incorporating what I have claimed to be truly important to me.
- Walker, North Carolina State University

Whether we like to admit it or not, students my age are thirsty for spiritual discussion and exploration.
- Crystal, Guilford College

Education transforms from the inside out...Thanks so much to the sponsors for bringing together hundreds of people who live their lives through their hearts. My heart has been touched by the group and by individuals—and it wouldn't have been possible without you.
- Chandi, Antioch College

I was able to come together with a group of open, honest, caring people and share the most intimate details of my life. Because of Inward Bound, I am working extremely hard to make decisions that are best for me, regardless how others will perceive my choice.
- Nicole, North Carolina State University

It's crazy, but we spend most of our time building insulation between us and those very things that we seek. I do. But for three days I let that go.
- Ross, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The discussions I shared with the students there, who in many cases are just waking up to their passion for truth, were as sublime, if not more so, than interactions I have had with some of the greatest spiritual scholars and teachers of our time.
- Mariana Caplan, speaker

I have never felt an atmosphere like that before. To be surrounded by hundreds of other people like me who cared about spirituality and life. Thank you!!!
- Heidi, Guilford College

Finding myself exposed, naked, I was able to discover parts of myself that always were, finding treasures of myself hidden under the dusts of conditioning.
- Andrea, Duke University

It was interesting because I come from a born-again Christian background and I was faced with all the faith questions that have been imbedded in me since I can remember being able to think for myself.
- Sarah, University of Massachussettes, Lowell

It was a truly amazing and unique experience for me and for the other students whom I got to know. It's so rare for college students to have a chance to actually look deeper and think about how their lives connect with the greater world and the divine. I know that I will treasure this experience always.
- Maggie Stoddard, Mount Holyoke College

It's so rare that you get to hear someone from a different tradition speaking the same truth.
- Payton, California Institute of Integral Studies

I drove up there not really knowing anyone, but I came back with friends I know more about and that know more about me, than the friends I have had for years...I learned things you can't read from books, but only experience first hand.
- Nancy, University of Florida

For all of us who attended, Inward Bound was an engaging, positive experience....Two of our students had Father Kline as a small group leader and had a marvelous experience...Congratulations to both of you on a successful event.
- William Hamilton, Dean of Religious Life, Depauw University

From beginning to end Inward Bound was an experience that was unlike any other in my life. It was wonderful to take just three days out of my busy life just to strictly think about my life, how I'm living and what I need to change.
- Michael McGrew, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Inward Bound didn't open my eyes to the meaning or purpose of why I am here, but it surrounded me with people who also wanted to know why and had their personal questions. Inward Bound sent people, or at least myself, home with a sense that I have now begun a journey that will continue for the rest of my life. I had the inspiration and I felt like I could have done just about anything.
- G.W. Barrett, North Carolina State University

Inward Bound was definitely an experience I will never forget. While I did feel there was manipulation on the part of the main leaders of the conference, the individual group I was in did not respond to the manipulations. We formed a connection that was above and beyond the IB request. The moment that stays in my mind was the closing ceremony that the group I was in had: We stood in two lines, one with eyes closed, and the other line went and hugged everyone, without being seen. It was such a touching moment, and the most emotional moment for me, knowing that I have these friends.
- Laura, Warren Wilson College

I left feeling like life was still new and fresh, and I still feel that way. My school actively fosters personal responsibility, political & self awareness, and commitment to the community. And I feel that the conference did the same, or at least offered what I might say is a catalytic, rather than a transformative experience, in the sense that if you were receptive to letting it change you, it would.
- Amanda, Antioch College

Personally, I thought the most interesting part of the conference was the way many of the activities were designed to put individuals into situations with which they were not entirely familiar or comfortable. I think one of the best ways to test "spirituality" is to have people do something that they can't predict, and then have them think about what their reaction means about them as a person.
- R.J., Allegheny College

Inward Bound, to me, was a wonderful experience where people could get together to learn and draw strength from one another. It let me know that there are other people like me who are searching for something, and that although the path can be lonely, I will never be alone.
- Jessica Bennett, University of Pittsburgh

I've been thinking about this the last several days. It's tough to talk about. I mean, it makes sense that everyone was vague on what to expect because it's just difficult to understand what it was all about!...it sounds like some people didn't get it. That's unfortunate. I know for a fact it changed some people's lives!
- JJ, University of Georgia